Security Update 2007-009 fixes a range of components: Address Book and iChat; ColorSync, the IO Storage Family, and the Perl, Python and Ruby programming languages.

Most of these flaws theoretically could be exploited by attackers to run unauthorized software on the Mac, although some of them had other security implications, such as allowing an attacker to gain access to sensitive information or download files to the computer without authorization.

These updates are for the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 operating systems, known as Tiger and Leopard, respectively.

Apple also released a minor update to its Safari 3 for Windows, fixing a cross-site scripting security problem that affects Windows users.

The updates follow Apple's release of a major update to its QuickTime media player and a Java security fix for Mac OS X 10.4. The QuickTime flaw was particularly serious, as it had been exploited by online criminals since early December.

With hackers and security researchers now paying more attention to Apple's products, the company's security team has been working overtime on bug fixes this year. Monday's patches were Apple's 35th and 36th security updates this year. In 2006, the company released just 22 sets of patches for its products.